Nights when Chris Coppola was awakened by the sound of
helicopters, he would begin counting. Separating the soft
pounding of each machine beating the warm Iraqi air, he
could tell how bad things were.

"Sometimes it was like a parking lot in the sky," he says.
"That meant we'd be very busy."

For Coppola, a pediatric surgeon deployed by the Air Force
to a dusty tent hospital about 40 miles north of Baghdad,
more helicopters meant more surgery than the doctor on duty
could handle. So he and the four other off-duty surgeons
would trudge to the operating room, where they would begin
the process of putting soldiers back together again.

"I worked in an urban hospital and handled gunshot wounds,
but an [improvised explosive device] is different," Coppola
says. "You could have 40 to 50 fragments in their body and
a leg torn off. There might be four or five people working
on one of these guys at a time."

His experience ranged from repeatedly cleaning gaping
abdominal wounds or reattaching the limbs of young men, to
treating cystic fibrosis or cancers in young Iraqi
children, whom Coppola and his team treated even though it
wasn't their responsibility.

"I fell back on my training, turned off emotion, and hoped
for the best," he says. "Sometimes it really bothered me.
You would see something that would surpass what you had
seen, even though you did not think that was possible.
Later I just could not sleep, so many nights I would
write."

Most of that writing took shape as e-mails to friends and
family, including his wife, Meredith, who compiled the
notes in a book called Made a Difference for That One: A
Surgeon's Letters Home from Iraq.

Coppola, 38, a native of Washington, D.C., received his MD
from
Johns Hopkins in 1994, did his residency at Yale New
Haven Hospital, and received free medical training from the
Air Force in exchange for four years of military
service.

The book clearly shows how his assignment in Iraq both
distressed and moved him as he worked through 24- or
36-hour days and faced one gruesome scene or heartbreaking
story after another.

In one e-mail he wrote about his experience caring for a
2-year-old who was burned over a third of her body when
insurgents fire-bombed her home because of her father's
allegiance to the new government:

In spite of heroic efforts from the team of doctors,
nurses, and techs taking care of her, she passed away
tonight at 18:50. I knew her long enough to learn that her
favorite stuffed animal was a pink bear, she loved chips
and snacks, and her giggles brought joy to her mother and
father. . . . For the past four days she has been
critically ill on life support. Her young heart gave out
after enduring much more than one with less will to live
could. . . . She is not the first child I have seen die,
and I know I am not so fortunate that she will be the last.
Tomorrow I will go back to work and try to help the others
who come my way. But tonight I am broken.

Though Coppola worries about the country's future —
and about both the reasoning behind and the conduct of the
war — he admires the Iraqi people. "It was so
dangerous for them to even vote, but they came out anyway.
It can stop me [from voting] if there is too much traffic.
These people were getting shot at."

His admiration is also heaped on the soldiers who he says
exuded patriotism, support for their mission, and
especially, a bond with their fellow soldier.

"We would have four guys all injured badly in a Humvee, and
when they came in they would argue with us over whom to
treat, insisting that we work on their buddy first."

Coppola developed a bond with one patient, helping to mend
his many wounds and reattach his arm — even giving
him blood. The soldier came to visit Coppola in Texas,
where he is now deployed at Lackland Air Force Base.

"It was amazing to see him up and about," Coppola says.
"With that arm, which had been hanging off with a little
bit of muscle, he reached out and gave me a very hearty
handshake."

A portion of the book's proceeds will go to the Fisher
House Foundation, which helps families stay near loved ones
at military hospitals.— Jim Paterson, SPSBE '04 (MS)

We're used to stories about graduates of the Johns Hopkins'
Nitze School of Advanced International Studies traipsing
across the globe. But driving 4,000 miles in a donated
clunker, across Europe and desolate parts of Africa, to
raise money for charity? And then doing it again? That's
different.

Meet Emily Horgan.

In January, Horgan, who works as a consultant to the
International Finance Corp. in Washington, D.C., finished
her second tour on the nonprofit Plymouth-Banjul Challenge,
a car rally created to poke gentle fun at the famous
Paris-Dakar Rally, a professional off-road rally that
follows a similar route.

The races couldn't be more different: Auto enthusiasts pay
six figures to participate in the prestigious Paris-Dakar,
supported by road crews. The Plymouth-Banjul race
stipulates that drivers spend no more than $200 on their
wheels, plus $25 in spare parts, and compete without
support across some of Africa's toughest terrain. Drivers
have competed in ambulances, ice cream vans, school buses,
and taxis. Once teams arrive in Gambia, the vehicles are
auctioned off to support local charities.

In 2005, Horgan joined chums Vivi Mellegard and Javier
Diaz, Bol '00, SAIS '02, in a 1991 Ford Fiesta for the
trip. The trio raised $2,500 for Santa Yalla, a Gambian
charity that supports people living with HIV/AIDS. The
rally raised $267,000 for Gambian charities. "I wasn't
planning to do it again," Horgan says. "But things
happened."

This year, joined by boyfriend James Warner, SAIS '06,
Horgan partnered with the U.S. charity YouthAIDS to raise
awareness about the disease. Driving a $75 Mercedes Benz
Saloon named Dusty Springs, the team — called the
Terranauts — traveled 4,000 miles, handing out
military-style dog tags bearing HIV/AIDS messages. In
addition to raising more funds for Santa Yalla, Dusty
Springs pulled in $1,725 at the auction for local charities
and has a new life as a taxicab in Gambia. (For more on the
race, visit www.terranauts.com.)

An encore? Horgan recently took a few weeks off from work
to drive an old bus through 14 European countries and
deliver a wooden gymnasium floor to needy Chechnyan
dancers. Horgan and friends dismantled the two-ton floor,
laid it in the bus, and ferried it to Georgia. There,
friends drove it over the Georgia-Russia border to the
dancers. "It's amazing what you can do when you combine a
love of travel with helping people," Horgan says.— Mary Beth Regan

The Future of the Wild: Radical Conservation for a
Crowded
World, by Jonathan S. Adams, A&S '86 (MA), Beacon Press
(2006).
The future foreseen here is writ large, and bluntly. Unless
scientists are allowed to address survival of species in
vast eco-regions, rather than in discrete parks and
forests, man and his domesticated flora and fauna will be
left to fend alone. And the harbinger is a region's largest
animals: The fate of the bears and big cats redounds down
to the titmouse. Adams retains hopes as he recounts a
history of made-in-U.S.A. ecological disasters —
i.e., the Everglades — and imparts lessons from them.
"In the end," he writes, "people will either value nature
and work to conserve it, or they will choose otherwise."

The Devil Is a Gentleman: Exploring America's
Religious
Fringe, by J.C. Hallman, A&S '97 (MA), Random House
(2006).
Brooding over Hallman's meander through religions is the
ghost of William James, made known through extensive
excerpts from his Varieties of Religious Experience. Thus
the reader comes away with a substantial biography of the
philosopher even while Hallman ferrets out contemporary
witches, Scientologists, Druids, Satanists, and UFO-ish
Unariuns. Ecumenically, he gives close attention to
atheists as well. In the century since James took to
religions, variety remains their spice.— Lew Diuguid, SAIS '63

"Ignorance is to science as economic opportunity is to
capitalism."— The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey

When it came time to pitch the camp of his scientific
career somewhere along the millennia-long river of
evolutionary history that leads to humanity, Chris Beard
knew where he wanted to go: the place where almost no one
else was.

Beard, who is one of four curators of vertebrate
paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in
Pittsburgh, specializes in paleoanthropology, the study of
the origins of humanity and its closest evolutionary
relatives, apes and other primates.

In Myanmar, Chris Beard (far right) with paleontologist
Laurent Marivaux (second from left) of the Centre National
de la Recherche Scientifique in Montpelier, France, and two
local villagers they hired to help dig for
fossils.

Instead of focusing his studies on the headline-grabbing
period when early humans first developed from apes, though,
Beard set his sights on the origins of primates.

"The fossil record has actually become good enough in the
last 10 to 15 years that we pretty much know the big
picture of the steps that led to the development of
humans," Beard explains. "There are giant questions,
though, if you head back about 45 to 50 million years,
two-thirds of the way back to the age of the dinosaurs, and
the first appearance of primates."

In the first decade of his career, Beard gave this area of
research a considerable jolt by suggesting that the
earliest primates came from Asia, not Africa as scientists
had long thought. With colleagues from the U.S. and China,
Beard has gathered fossils from China that support his
theory. And he's analyzed modern-day populations of
primitive primates like tarsiers and lemurs in Asian
nations to further buttress his ideas. For his
groundbreaking efforts, Beard was recognized in 2000 with a
fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation (known as a "genius grant").

In 2004, Beard published The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey:
Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans
(University of California Press), which put his research
into a historical context for a lay audience. The book won
the American Anthropological Association's 2005 W.W.
Howells Book Prize in Biological Anthropology and, more
recently, the 2006 Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science.

"It's given to recognize the best book meant to convey
science to a general audience in that particular year, so
it was a great honor to be recognized out of the 200 to 300
that get nominated every year," says Beard, who is not a
member of the society. "Unfortunately, I found out I had
won the award just before I had to leave to do some field
work in Myanmar, so I couldn't be there for the awards
ceremony."

Beard enjoys shuttling off to distant, exotic parts of the
world to look for fossils. His book begins with a detailed
description of the discovery of a key fossil find
supportive of his theories in 1995 in a ravine near the
Yellow River in China.

Fieldwork, other research, and the grant writing necessary
to sustain it are about 50 percent of Beard's job at the
Carnegie. Other duties include attending fundraising
functions for the museum and giving speeches and
presentations to members, politicians, the general public
— and the occasional celebrity or two. "Mick Jagger
came by last autumn to see the museum while the Stones were
on tour," he notes.

Beard and his fellow curators are currently in the midst of
a multiyear, $40 million revamping of the museum's dinosaur
exhibits. "We're tripling the floor space devoted to the
dinosaur galleries, taking each dinosaur apart and putting
them back together again," he says. "It's quite the
engineering task to safely suspend, for example, the pelvis
of a Diplodocus, which weighs about 3,000 pounds, and to
do
so in a dramatic fashion that will entertain and interest
our visitors."

He notes that the Carnegie's historic dinosaur collection
includes the first specimens of Tyrannosaurus rex and
Diplodocus ever discovered, and points out that the
Carnegie is the only major paleontological museum to
display not epoxy casts of fossil bones but the actual
bones themselves.

"When it opens in late 2007, it should be about the best
dinosaur exhibit on the face of the earth," Beard says.
For Beard, the most important part of the museum's mission
is promoting basic science literacy. When he mentions the
recent evolution vs. intelligent design trials in nearby
Dover, Pennsylvania, there's a wince in his voice: It was
bad enough that such a trial happened at all so long after
the Scopes Trial seemed to put the issue to rest, but
having it so close to one of the nation's premier national
history museums made it doubly galling for him.

"It's shocking to me that issues like this still
reverberate," he says. "If large sections of the public
don't know that evolution occurs and is a fact and is not
up for debate anymore even if we don't know the full
pattern, that shows that not only K through 12 but
secondary education has failed in America."

The indignation doesn't linger long with Beard, though.
He's a veteran at winning over skeptics.

"Maybe museums can be plan B for more traditional
educational institutions," he says. "If K through 12 fails,
maybe we can grab the public with our exhibits and make
them understand a little bit more about science. Our big
goal has to be having something along those lines that is
appropriate for all age groups — pre-K to
retirement."— Michael Purdy

Many of us can relate: It's the height of flu season, and
your coworkers' coughing makes the office sound like an
emergency room. Sure, you care about your colleagues'
health, but you don't want to get sick, too. "Most
companies want you there, even if you're sick," says Cheryl
Rosell. "If you're hacking, coughing, and sneezing, we need
to make sure you aren't spreading germs."

Rosell, who has her own health consulting firm in Toronto,
has turned her attention in recent years to teaching people
how office hygiene can prevent the spread of illnesses. She
has good training: A former health executive who ran
Ontario's organ transplant program, Rosell was a quarantine
officer for Health Canada during the SARS outbreak in
2003.

The SARS incident, along with the threat of pandemics such
as the spread of the avian flu, has companies taking office
hygiene seriously, she says. In January, Rosell launched
"Lunch and Learn Programs" aimed at teaching workers about
the nuts-and-bolts of battling germs. Her first lesson:
Know the difference between bacterial and viral infections.
Bacteria live on their own. They are treatable with
antibiotics. Viruses must invade a cell to stay alive. They
are smaller, but they can kill you.

So what's the best strategy for reducing office-bred
infections?

Invest in good
cleaning supplies, including disinfectants
with virocides.

Buy the
medical-quality hand sanitizers, even though they
are more expensive.

Teach employees
to wash their hands frequently during the
day.

Avoid sharing
keyboards, phones, cell phones, and other
equipment.

Use tissues to
cover mouths for coughs and sneezes,
then dispose properly by placing them in double-lined
plastic bags.

Based on my experience as a history major, the sophomore
through senior years are the most formative, critical years
of an undergraduate education," says Rosalind Resnick, A&S
'81 (BA/MA). "Not only are students mastering information
and doing research, but they are also developing a refined
knack for individual inquiry that will serve as the
foundation for their professional careers."

To support students during this three-year period of their
Johns Hopkins education, Resnick was one of the first
donors to commit to the Hopkins Fund Scholars, a special
recognition program for individuals who pledge $10,000 or
more per year for three years to the Hopkins Fund.

Resnick has long been an early adaptor. She built an
Internet marketing company, NetCreations Inc., from a
two-person home-based start-up to a public company that
generated $58 million in sales. She then founded and is CEO
of Axxess Business Centers Inc., a leader in strategic
consulting, business plan development, and outsourced
financial and marketing services for start-ups and emerging
businesses.

Why make a long-term commitment to the Hopkins Fund? "For
me, it's a great way to give back to the place that did so
much to shape the way I think, write, analyze problems, and
make decisions," Resnick says. "My years at Hopkins have
enriched my life beyond measure. I look forward to making
the Hopkins experience possible for a deserving
student."

Tony Anderson: "It made all the
difference."

Another early Hopkins Fund Scholar supporter is Tony
Anderson, A&S '76, who tells a story to explain why he
gives for financial aid. "I came to Johns Hopkins in the
fall of 1972 to study international relations," he begins.
"Expenses were higher than I anticipated, and I had no
financial aid, so I went to the financial aid office to ask
for permission to take part in a work-study program. After
I explained my family's circumstances to the aid officer,
she asked for time to work on my request. When I returned,
she had secured financial aid for the spring semester,
which led to support for my final three years at
Hopkins.

"It made all the difference," he continues. "I still worked
during my sophomore, junior, and senior years, but I had
time to devote to my studies and much more. I took part in
the Black Student Association, my fraternity, and the
Barnstormers stage crew. Thanks to that assistance, I got
so much more out of my Hopkins education."

Anderson, now a partner in the Washington law office of
Thompson Coburn LLP, specializes in federal mass
transportation, Americans with Disabilities Act,
disadvantaged business enterprises, and federally assisted
procurement activities.

Current students Jason Rothhaupt and Ashlyn
Schniederjans say they have benefitted from Hopkins Fund
support.

Predictably, student recipients of financial aid are most
grateful. "Without the support of the Hopkins Fund," says
Jason Rothhaupt, Engr '06, "I never could have stepped foot
on the Hopkins campus."

Ashlyn Schniederjans, A&S '06, echoes those thoughts by
saying, "In order to afford my education here, I needed
that financial support. I'm very grateful for it."

Gifts for Hopkins Fund Scholars help the university as
well. When admissions officers can offer financial aid
packages to the very best applicants, those students choose
Hopkins, and once they are here, they accomplish great
things. The last two Hopkins Rhodes Scholars received
financial aid.

Increased financial aid helps make the student body more
diverse. "As one of the relatively few women at Hopkins
back in the '70s," says Resnick, "I believe that the more
diverse the student body becomes, the more the university
benefits from diverse viewpoints, cultures, and
backgrounds. Diversity makes a Johns Hopkins education
better."

Donors like the idea of underwriting a particular
individual. "By supporting a Hopkins Fund Scholar for three
years, I am making a commitment to a particular student,"
says Anderson. "This is a greater commitment than saying,
'I'll give you $10,000 this year and we'll see how you do.'
I want that individual to take full advantage of a Hopkins
education — inside and outside the classroom —
and not to have to worry about the money."

Hopkins Fund Scholars and their benefactors are invited to
an annual Scholarship Luncheon, where they sit together.
Scholarships can be named for three years in memory or in
honor of someone, and donors have the opportunity to
further the relationship by serving as an adviser and
networking resource.

The Alumni Association has
affiliated with the Penn Club to
provide Johns Hopkins alumni with a home to socialize,
network, and conduct business in New York City. As of July
1, all alumni will be able to join the Penn Club as
affiliate members.

In affiliating with the Penn Club, Johns Hopkins joins
other universities — such as MIT, University of
Chicago, and London Business School — that have
sought to establish a formal gathering place for alumni in
the Big Apple.

Alumni who join the Penn Club are eligible to attend Penn
Club events, which range from business forums, industry
panel discussions, and career development seminars to
culinary feasts, book groups, and art tours. Members can
also attend inter-Ivy events co-hosted with nearby clubs
such as Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Williams, Cornell,
and Yale.

The initiation fee for Johns Hopkins alumni to join the
Penn Club is waived through September 30, 2006. To learn
more about the Alumni Association's new affiliation with
the Penn Club visit
www.alumni.jhu.edu/benefits/pennclub.
To request a membership package call 212-403-6627 or e-mail
membership@pennclub.org and identify yourself as a
Johns Hopkins graduate.

"I am thrilled that we now have a relationship with a club
as prestigious as the Penn Club in New York," says Wayne
Matus, A&S '72, president of the New York Metro Chapter,
which plans to hold meetings and an annual event at the
club. "This partnership is a natural fit for us, given the
long-standing relationship between Hopkins and Penn."

Last year, Johns Hopkins' Nitze School of Advanced
International Studies and the University of Pennsylvania's
Wharton School of Business celebrated the 20th anniversary
of their joint MA/MBA degree program.

The Penn Club affiliation is the culmination of a year's
work for the New York Metro Chapter's executive committee.
Brian Carcaterra, A&S '00, chaired a search committee to
research and interview 10 university clubs for affiliation.
Along with Adam Bergman, A&S '95, and Matthew Sóla,
SAIS
'86, Carcaterra led the efforts that eventually whittled
the short list down to one. Now he is excited that alumni
can begin reaping the benefits of Penn Club membership.

"This is more than just a benefit for local alumni,"
Carcaterra says. "Any alum doing business or just visiting
New York could make great use of this club. The rooms are
reasonably priced, and overnight guests get free use of the
fitness center. Members even get to use the squash courts
at the Yale Club."

Kenneth H. Keller, Engr '63 (MS), '64 (PhD), has
been named
director of the SAIS Bologna Center, effective August 1.
Keller returns to Johns Hopkins from the University of
Minnesota, where he served as president from 1985 to 1988.
Most recently, he was the Charles M. Denny Jr. Professor of
Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the university's
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Keller was
a professorial lecturer and visiting professor at the
Bologna Center during the 2003-2004 academic year.

President George W. Bush has nominated Anne E.
Derse, Bol
'80, SAIS '81, to be the next ambassador to the Republic of
Azerbaijan. President Bush has also nominated Robert S.
Ford, A&S '80, SAIS '83, to serve as ambassador to the
People's Democratic Republic of Algeria. Both Derse and
Ford are career members of the Senior Foreign Service.

The Bush administration has also named Camilla P.
Benbow,
A&S '77, '79 (MA), SPSBE '80 (MS), '81 (PhD), vice
chairwoman of the National Math Panel, which will examine
how U.S. school districts teach the subject, and make
recommendations designed to improve American achievement in
math. Benbow is currently dean of the Peabody College of
Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt
University.

In April, 30-year police veteran William McManus,
SPSBE '98 (MS), was sworn in as the chief of police for San
Antonio,
Texas. McManus, who was most recently police chief of the
Minneapolis Police Department, has previously served as
police chief in Dayton, Ohio, and assistant police chief in
Washington, D.C.